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Disaster
'' |image= |series= |production=40275-205 |producer(s)= |story=Ron Jarvis and Philip A. Scorza |script=Ronald D. Moore |director=Gabrielle Beaumont |imdbref=tt0708703 |guests=Rosalind Chao as Keiko O'Brien, Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien, Michelle Forbes as Ro Laren, Erika Flores as Marissa Flores, John Christian Graas as Jay Gordon Graas, Max Supera as Patterson Supera, Cameron Arnett as Mandel and Jana Marie Hupp as Monroe |previous_production=Silicon Avatar |next_production=The Game |episode=TNG S05E05 |airdate=21 October 1991 |previous_release=Silicon Avatar |next_release=The Game |story_date(s)=Stardate 45156.1 |previous_story=Silicon Avatar |next_story=The Game }} Summary As Captain Picard is playing host to three young winners of a shipboard science contest, a catastrophe strikes the ship, causing violent power failures, total disruption of communications, and an almost complete shutdown of it's systems. On the bridge, Troi is shocked to find herself in command, and facing a momentous decision; the disaster has weakened the magnetic containment field surrounding the ship's antimatter pods. An explosion could occur at any moment. Ensign Ro argues she must seperate the saucer section immediately, while O'Brien points out thay have no way of knowing if anyone is still alive in Engineering. In Ten Forward, Riker, Data, Worf and Keiko O'Brien, who is pregnant, treat the injured, while Geordi and Dr. Crusher find themselves trapped in a cargo bay, and threatened by a radioactive fire. Captain Picard, his leg broken, is trapped in a damaged turbolift with three very frightened children. While Troi struggles to come to a decision regarding saucer seperation, Riker and Data decide to leave Ten Forward for Engineering, where they will attempt to restore power. After being trapped in an access tube by an electrical current, Data is forced to sacrifice his body, but not his head, to allow them to continue. Meanwhile, Keiko shocks Worf by going into labour, Picard and the three children attempt to reach safety, while Crusher and La Forge decide their only hope of extinguishing the fire is to blow the airlock. Riker reaches Engineering, and uses Data's head to tap into the ship's control circuits, where he notices the failing pod field in the nick of time. Troi, seconds away from jettisoning the drive section, is overjoyed when power is restored. Picard and the children are rescued, La Forge and Crusher escape the cargo bay, and Keiko, with Worf's assistance, gives birth to a baby girl. Errors and Explanations Internet Movie Database Character error # One of the biggest plot points involves Troi's command decision on whether or not to separate the saucer section and risk leaving behind survivors. Ensign Ro states that they have no reason to believe there are any survivors on the other part of the ship. However Troi should be able to easily sense the emotions of any living people on the ship, making her the only person who *could* determine this. This is completely ignored. This could be a side effect of the filament impact. # After the baby is born, Worf says, "I believe she looks like Chief O'Brien." But when we see the baby a few seconds later it is obviously Asian and therefore would look nothing like a white Irishman. Worf is attempting to allrviate the tension of the situation. Plot holes # When Beverly and Geordi are trapped in the cargo bay, Beverly says, "Geordi, this wall is HOT!", Geordi, acts surprised and asks "Where...?". It has already been established that his VISOR can easily see the EM spectrum including infrared. Surely, he would have seen the wall was hot before Beverly ever touched it. The wall could be designed to block that part of the EM spectrum. Plot Oversights # Riker and Data leaving Ten Forward by the port side doors, in order to enter Engineering via the starboard service crawlway. The starboard doors in Ten Forward may be jammed, forcing them to travel across the ship during their journey. Nit Central # Rene on Saturday, August 21, 1999 - 8:00 pm: Given the fact that Troi did not take the bridge officer's test yet (Thine Own Self), she should not have been in command. And she didn't show great leadership abilities. She risked everyone's life in the saucer section based on a hunch. She was lucky that she was right.Chris Thomas on Sunday, August 22, 1999 - 12:09 am: While she hadn't taken the bridge officer's test, wasn't she in command because she was the one with the highest rank on the bridge? Sort of like if Geordi had been there, but hadn't taken the test, surely he would have been in command? # Lea Frost on Saturday, November 06, 1999 - 10:46 am: The one nit that annoys me most about this episode is the bit in the turbolift scene where Picard has the kids sing "Frere Jacques." Why is this? Because at the end, Picard sings "Ding ding dong," not "Din din don" as any self-respecting Frenchman would do! :-) Maybe the ending was changed over time? # Mark Swinton on Sunday, January 23, 2000 - 12:48 pm: If that's a cargo bay, wouldn't there be environmental suits in there? After all, Roga Danar found one in a cargo bay (The Hunted) just fine. The environment suits may have been relocated after the events of The Hunted. # Why was it necessary to use the panel right by the door to repressurise the bay when LaForge depressurised it from the panel next to him. The first panel may have been damaged by the depressurisation. # LUIGI NOVI on Saturday, June 02, 2001 - 10:55 pm: In Act 3, when Data and Riker, crawling through the Jefferies Tube, come across an electrical arc containing half a million amps, Data says that if the arc were to be interrupted by a non-conductive material, the circuit would be broken. Data says that much of his body framework is made of non-conductive polymers, and suggest using it to break the circuit. Riker asks if his body could handle that much current. Data says that the power surge would cause a systems failure in his internal processors and melt his primary power couplings, but that there is a chance that the damage would not be irreparable. I don’t get it. If his body framework is made of non-conductive material, why would there be any damage at all? If his body were non-conductive, then the electricity wouldn’t come into contact with his inner circuitry to begin with, and he would be totally unaffected by the act. There is a risk of current entering gaps in the framework. # Given the construction of the plaque, it’s quaint to know that cardboard will still exist in the 24th century. I know this thing was made by three kids, but surely they know how to use a replicator, don’t they? Is cardboard the best the replicator can do? Perhaps the children selected cardboard to emphasise the home made nature of the plaque. # Sophie Hawksworth on Monday, June 18, 2001 - 2:45 pm: I know it is central to the plot, but why exactly do communications fail when the computers go down? OK, I know comms are routed by the computer, BUT, does this mean that if the Enterprise is out of range of an away team then the away team can't talk to each other? Seems like a backward step compared to TOS communicators. I'd expect that either the comm badges would work on their own when the computers weren't available, or that there would be some kind of portable communications hub that they could use on away missions, or in emergencies like this one. The signals may have been blocked by interference. # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - 5:40 am: When discussing names for their baby the O'Briens have a disagreement over what to call it if it is a boy, with Miles preferring Michael and Keiko preferring Hiro. So why didn't they choose either of these names when they finally had a boy on Deep Space Nine? They wanted to acknowledge Kira's assistance by carrying the baby for the months before the birth. # Miles leaves Ten-Forward to run a transporter simulation on the Bridge. Why would they have a transporter simulation on the Bridge instead of in one of the Transporter Rooms? Overall coordination of the transporter system is conducted from the bridge. # So why didn't the sensors detect the first Quantum Filament before they hit it? After they were hit they were able to check and see what hit them and they did detect the second Quantum Filament. Didn't the sensor designer/programmers think that it might be a good idea to detect Quantum Filaments several minutes before the ship might hit one? True some might say that the odds of hitting a Quantum Filament are pretty scarce, but then what are the odds of hitting two Quantum Filaments? They were only able to detect the second filament because the impact of the first filament allowed them to analyse it's structure. # Despite being hit by two Quantum Filaments the outside of the Enterprise looked to be in pretty good shape. The filaments probably act like the bolt from ion cannon in Star Wars, disrupting the electrical systems without causing structural damage. # Corradum explodes when exposed to radiation, but it is used in emergency thruster packs, which I believe are usually used in outer space, which is filled with Stellar Radiation.Electron on Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - 7:01 pm: Maybe those packs are shielded against radiation? # In Cause and Effect, depressurizing the shuttle bay moved the ship. Wouldn't you think that depressurizing the Cargo Bay would do the same thing? The cargo bay is smaller than the main shuttle bay, and would presumable produce less of a push. # If I recall correctly, the Shuttles all have their own power source, their own computer and their own emergency transporters. So if someone had been in or near one of the Shuttle Bays, they could have activated one of the shuttles and used the shuttle computer to activate the communicators and the transporter to beam people to and from the damaged areas of the ship. So, what happened to all the people who are supposed to be stationed in the Shuttle Bays? Possibly non operational due to the impact. # John A. Lang on Thursday, November 07, 2002 - 3:08 pm: Of course a bigger question might be: Why doesn't the Enterprise have fire extinguishers & sprinkler systems? Mr. Mistie on Thursday, November 07, 2002 - 7:19 pm: It was established in Up the Long Ladder that the Enterprise uses force fields to supress fires, Considering the fact that the cargo bay containment field was still operating, You'd think that the fire supression system would be too. ''Seniram''The fire suppression system may be off line. # You'd also think that there would be some good old fashioned fire extinguishers lying about (they still exist in the 24th century, a Romulan is seen using on at the beginning of The Next Phase), especially in an area where hazardous combustable materials are handled routinely. They may not be accessible due to the fire and/or radiation. # Merat on Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 8:42 pm: Wouldn't it make sense for the gravity in the turbolift shaft to be switched off if there was a problem with one of the cars? Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Saturday, November 21, 2009 - 6:14 am:''Maybe it 'bleeds' in from the other decks. ''Seniram 09:16, September 24, 2015 (UTC) Either that, or there is a grav generation system in the base of the car, as suggested by Phil under Equipment Oddites in the TNG Nitpicker Guide II entry. # John A. Lang on Monday, November 11, 2002 - 8:16 pm: In Encounter at Farpoint, Picard tells Riker that he's not very good with children. In this episode, he does just fine. '''Sven of Nine on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 9:05 am: Mind you, Picard wasn't that bad with the children in When the Bough Breaks either. The whole Picard-never-admits-to-liking-children running joke also featured at the beginning of The Pegasus. I think this is a secret side of Picard's character he doesn't like to reveal to new officers - it seems one of his great desires as revealed in Generations was to father children. It only reflects on Picard as being one of Trek's many celebrated three-dimensional characters. Then again, "becoming" a child in Rascals might have added another spin to things. LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 11:37 am: It's obvious that he simply doesn't know how good he is with them. He simply parents by example, and comes up with solutions to address the problem at hand, just as he would in his capacity as a starship captain, like suggesting that Jono play raquetball in Suddenly Human to alleviate his stress, or opening up to Wes in Samaritan Snare, etc ''' Notes Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation